Letters Home

When an out-of-work actor discovers his bedsit once belonged to an obscure, suicidal painter, he turns his talents to re-creating the ultimate site-specific performance…

As a teenage girl drifts from depression into a permanent state of sleep, she becomes the focus of both scientific interest and an unexpected, cult following...

Against a backdrop of hooliganism and hostility, an asylum seeker writes letters home assuring his family how welcoming England is...

Many of the characters in Martyn Bedford’s stories find themselves at a point of redefinition, trading in their old identity for something new. Whether it is an act of retreat or escape – fantasising about storming out of a thankless job, or just avoiding a bad-tempered husband for a few moments on Christmas day – they each understand the first step in changing a reality, is to reconstruct it.

‘Martyn Bedford is the genuine article, a writer of unmistakable flair and accomplishment.’
- New York Times

‘Haunting and intimate portraits of vividly different lives that get under your skin and stay there.’
- Jeremy Dyson

Press

'What I found most poignant when reading this collection were the things that were not spoken between characters; the words that fall between the cracks... it’s both powerful and emotive.' - Thresholds

'[Letters Home] is a display of creative virtuosity, with Bedford presenting a huge range of diverse voices and scenarios; each story is so different – in subject matter, style, characterisation – from the next. His obvious joy in experimenting with form also comes across. The risks are worth taking: he succeeds every time.' - Yorkshire Post (Click through for full review and a Q&A with the author. No pay wall, but you do have to create a free login)

'The only downside - as I often find with short stories - is that you become so engrossed you don’t want them to end so soon.' - Helen Mead, Bradford Telegraph & Argus

'Letters Home is a vivid collection of heartfelt stories, told with vigour and obvious empathy.' - Megan Kenny, Disclaimer Magazine

'The stories are both short postcards from the edge of everyday existence, and also Martyn Bedford’s bitter-sweet love notes to life in Yorkshire, and Letters Home is a first class read.' - David M. Barnett, Ilkley Gazette

Martyn reads an excerpt from 'Because of Olsen' and 'Here's a Little Baby', stories in the collection, recorded at the Waterstones Bradford launch. Listen to the full discussion between Martyn and Ra Page on our Soundcloud - Part 1 / Part 2

Read Martyn's blog on the inspiration and research behind 'Withen', a story exploring the Battle of Orgreave.